The Save T3 Bankstown Line community action group is delighted at the opening of the Yagoona Station Upgade. Local residents have campaigned for a lift for many years and will continue in the right to improve train services.
Upgrading of Yagoona Station demonstrates that accessibility and other improvements are achievable on the T3 Bankstown Line without conversion into Sydney Metro.
We believe that a new lift is good, but serious questions remain about the future incentive to board at Yagoona when commuters won’t have a train to Central and have to interchange once Metro Southwest cuts the Bankstown line in half.
With Transport for NSW announcing in 2020 that once Metro Southwest opens, Yagoona will only have a shuttle train between Bankstown and Lidcombe. This results in commuters being forced to interchange at Bankstown for Metro, or Regents Park/Lidcombe for other trains.
Yagoona and Birrong will become the only 2 stations in the entire Sydney Trains Network without a direct train to Central Station/Sydney CBD.
Furthemore, despite Transport for NSW claiming for past 18 months to be planning for rail services in the West of Bankstown, the community has not received any detailed updates nor information on when the supposed new timetable will be introduced.
It is increasingly questionable whether Transport for NSW is committed to running trains West of Bankstown (post Metro Southwest's opening date).
The fact is that after 18 months of supposed future timetable development, Transport for NSW doesn’t have any draft timetables nor have they even spent anytime in looking at any historical/previous timetables as a benchmark for journey times and stopping patterns.
Residents and commuters have serious concerns for future of Sydney Trains services at Yagoona with internal Transport for NSW documents showing buses replacing trains in future once Metro Southwest opens and in the NSW Future Transport Strategy.
The propspect of stations in West of Bankstown closing remains with internal Transport for NSW documents showing bus routes replacing trains between Bankstown and Regents Park, Regents Park and Lidcombe, Regents Park and Cabramatta .
Transport for NSW to date has refused to conduct community consultation regarding the service frequency and stopping patterns of supposed future rail services in the West of Bankstown area.